Bond Girl roles are high-profile parts, and the announcement of the actress playing them is usually surrounded with much publicity. For unestablished actresses, the parts can boost careers.

Most Bond Girl characters fall into one of the following categories:

a victim rescued by Bond early in the movie

a fellow agent assigned to the same mission

a villainous, or member of an enemy organisation, bent on Bond's destruction

a minor character whose function is prettiness without any dialogue.

Frequently, enemy Bond girls change sides in the course of the adventure; supposedly friendly women also have betrayed Bond. Initially, Bond girls were ineffectual characters, needing rescue and protection by Bond. In later movies, they became equal, possessing special skills Bond needs to complete his mission, and sometimes rescuing Bond. At the end of an adventure, it is usual for surviving Bond girls to sexually express their gratitude and affection for Bond. Uniquely, one Bond girl (Tracy Diana Rigg in On Her Majesty's Secret Service), married Bond at the end of the story, only to be murdered shortly after their wedding. The Sylvia Trench Eunice Gayson character is the only Bond girl appearing two Bond films, as she was to be Bond's girlfriend in the series, but the character dropped after her encore appearance in From Russia With Love.
To date, Maud Adams is the only actress to have played more than one Bond girl. In another unique situation, the Elektra King character in The World Is Not Enough is initially established as a traditional Bond girl, only to be revealed as either the villain's henchwomen or one of the two main villains.